Love Potions and Nargles
by xxHypocrisy
Summary: Harry and Hermione fall in love over the summer, but Harry dumps her under suspicious circumstances. Harry starts dating Ginny and Hermione starts dating Ron. Treachery is discovered and the joke's on Dumbledore. Cho Chang discovers the horrors of Nargles


**Author:** Crisy

**Rating: **T

**Category:** Harry Potter

**Length: **One-shot

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Harry Potter or anything associated with it.

**A/N:** Got bored. Next chapter for IDY should be out later tonight too, but in the meantime…

* * *

Harry Potter was living in a dream; or at least he felt like he was. Every day passed in a haze, it had been like this since the start of the school year. Over the summer him and Hermione had hung out a few times without Ron and had hit it off spectacularly. Harry vaguely remembered being absolutely sure he was in love with his Hermione, at least until something had happened in the train when he'd gone to use the loo. Everything got fuzzy after that, he couldn't remember when he'd stopped liking Hermione since it seemed to happen so suddenly.

Ginny Weasley cuddled up to her boyfriend contentedly. She couldn't understand why her best friend Hermione wouldn't talk to her, sure Harry had dumped her for Ginny but really; Harry was his own person, free to see whomever he liked. Ginny wouldn't have held it against Hermione if their roles were reversed…okay, so maybe a little bit. But honestly! The girl wouldn't even look at her anymore, even though she seemed to be happy with Ron since they'd started going out a day after term had started.

Hermione Granger was angry. She couldn't remember why, and frankly couldn't be bothered with trying to think about it since she was currently pressed against a wall with Ron's tongue in her mouth and his hands in her shirt. She growled angrily, something about this felt wrong. Hadn't she loved Harry just a few weeks ago…?

Ron Weasley was having the time of his life. He'd been disappointed to hear that Harry and Hermione had become an item over the summer, so when they'd broken up on the train he'd leapt at the chance. What could be better than a hot girlfriend who would do your homework for you? It did bother him a little bit though that she seemed at times to be on auto-pilot, as if she wasn't really there.

* * *

Christmas break came and the two couples separated. Ron, Ginny, and Hermione went home to their families for the holidays and Harry stayed at the castle as per usual. What wasn't usual was after the train left the morning of the first day of break; Harry began to think about Hermione again. He felt bad about leaving her; he had thought that they were in love! For that matter, he couldn't even remember _why_ he'd left her in the first place. It seemed that one moment he was head over heals, the next he was at Ginny's compartment door asking her out to the first Hogsmeade weekend.

Something was wrong with this picture. Harry took all his meals in the kitchens, Dobby was only too happy to cook for him and serve him at a small table in the corner of the kitchens twice a day. He even delivered snacks to him in the dorm, the library, on the pitch, and wherever else Harry could be found during his break.

The third day in, he got a letter from Hermione's parents' owl. They'd gotten one so they could correspond more easily with their daughter. A small scrap of notebook paper said simply, "Something is wrong."

Harry whole-heartedly agreed. The thought of kissing Ginny repulsed him; she was his younger sister in all but blood and name. Just the thought of Hermione made his heart skip a beat. There was something wrong with this picture…

Harry went down to the kitchens on a hunch, and asked the house elves if there was anything in the food they had been serving him before break started.

"Oh yes Harry Potter sir, Headmaster Dumbles has been giving house elves special potion to put in Harry Potter sir's drink every morning. Headmaster Dumbles be also giving the elves special powder to be putting in Harry Potter sir's Grangey's desert at every dinner, sir." An elf replied to the question, happy to give up the Headmaster's secret.

Harry saw red.

_Dear Hermione,_

_When you get back, don't eat anything not cooked by Dobby, the headmaster has been having the elves put strange things in our food. I've enclosed a sample of both the potion they used for me and the powder they used on you. _

_When you get back, I have a surprise for you._

_Love,_

_Harry_

He sent the letter off with Hedwig, along with a box of Hermione's favorite chocolate. Then he plotted his revenge for the interfering Headmaster.

* * *

When the student body returned from their holiday, Harry treated Hermione to a romantic candle-lit dinner in the Room of Requirement cooked, guarded, and served, by Dobby.

"So, what was the stuff Dumbledore has been putting in our food?" Harry asked as they ate.

"It's a love potion; the powder was probably used on you the first time from what I understand. You say that you went to the bathroom and don't remember anything beyond that for the next few minutes? Someone probably was watching for you to leave our compartment. When they saw you heading to the loo, they probably blew the powder in under the door." Hermione explained, sampling the wine Harry had selected.

"Oh, so it's not toxic? That's good…I suppose." Harry replied with a hint of disappointment in his voice.

"Harry…what did you do?" Hermione demanded, looking straight into his eyes.

"Well, nothing much. You know how Dobby adores me, right? Well, turns out he's risen in the house elf world to head cook. He didn't know what he was putting in our food, Dumbledore only told him that it would help us or something. Now that he knows what it did, he was more than happy to help me turn the tables on Dumbledore. Let's just say that he'll be in our shoes for a few days." Harry explained with a smirk.

Hermione laughed and kissed him over the table, "That's wonderful, exactly what that interfering goat deserves."

* * *

Luna Lovegood was having fun making her fellow Ravenclaws nervous. She was staring at them and muttering about Nargles under her breath until her victim looked up at her, then she would smile serenely and inform them that they were suffering and infestation.

It was great fun. Her current victim was Harry's old girlfriend, Cho Chang.

"What are you muttering about you Loon? There's no such thing as a Nargle." Cho declared, glaring at Luna.

"Cho Chang! I have watched you from afar forever my dearest! I love you!" The headmaster suddenly declared.

"Oh dear, it seems our esteemed Headmaster has become positively infested with Nargles," Luna turned to Cho Chang who was sitting next to her, "I told you they were real. Don't you wish you'd listened to me?"

Cho looked at the Headmaster in alarm, then disbelievingly at Luna before fleeing from the Great Hall to hide somewhere, muttering to herself the whole way.

* * *

My sister has been writing about the love potion issue all day. She wrote two one-shots and a plot for a full story. In all of them though, Ginny was a callous bitch who was feeding Harry the love potions. I don't think she's that bad, so this is my spin on it.

Review and tell me if I did anything wrong or if you think I should have added anything.


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